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חברי "עליית הנוער" בתחנת הרכבת בדרך לארץ ישראל, ברלין, גרמניה, 1933 (צילום: הרברט זוננפלד, בית התפוצות, המרכז לתיעוד חזותי ע"ש אוסטר)

The Story of the Yekkes – Jewish Germans in the Land of Israel

After the Nazis came to power in Germany 1933, some half a million German Jews were gradually leaving Germany. The vast majority of those descendants of Ashkenazi communities, who lived along the Rhine since the ninth century fled to America and Great Britain, while a small 10% chose to immigrate eastwards to the Land of Israel. They were welcomed not only by mosquitoes and swamps, but also with humiliating and condescending attitude from the veteran Israelis. Much like Jews from Arab lands, who were given offensive nicknames, German immigrants too suffered mocking insults. They were called “The Yekkes”, one interpretations[]

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דוכן למימכר דגלי ישראל לרגל חגיגות יום העצמאות, ישראל 1950 ( צילום: לני זוננפלד, בית התפוצות, המרכז לתיעוד חזותי ע"ש אוסטר, אוסף זוננפלד)

From Victim to Aggressor: When Jews Start to Fight Back – All the way to Independence

In 1903 the young poet Chaim Nachman Bialik was sent to Kishinev, Russia, to cover the pogroms there. He faced horrible sights: 49 brutalized dead bodies, 92 severely wounded, dozens of Jewish shops ruined and looted. But what upset him even more were the humiliation, the helplessness, the shredded self-respect of the Jews – these scarred the young man’s soul forever. He expressed his rage and frustration as to the passive, weak reaction of the Jews, in the sarcastic poem In the City of Slaughter בעיר ההריגה, which became his life’s work. The poiema, which included harsh accusations against the[]

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קיר המוקדש להרשלה, ג'וחא וחכמי חלם בתערוכה "ויהי צחוק - הומור יהודי מסביב לעולם" במוזיאון העם היהודי בבית התפוצות (צילום: אלעד שריג)

One Joke Too Far: the Real Story of Hershele

There are so many Jewish jokes and tales out there, with hardly anything to do with real events or people. Take for example the case of the wise men of Chelm: though Chelm is an actual city, it had a perfectly normal population of both wise and stupid. No one really knows why Chelm entered folklore as a fool’s town. And on the contrary, the figure of Juha – the protagonist of jokes and tales in Muslim countries, was not an actual person as far as we know, yet was widely used as a literal joker by both Jews and[]

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אלינור רוזוולט, אשת נשיא ארה"ב, והרב ישראל גולדשטיין בכנס מנהיגים יהודיים, ארה"ב, 1944 (צילום: הרברט זוננפלד, (בית התפוצות, המרכז לתיעוד חזותי ע"ש אוסטר אוסף זוננפלד)

Big Ben: The Hollywood Screenwriter Who fought the Code of Silence

It was a cold night in January of 1943. Two friends were walking in the fifth avenue in New York. Children were making snow men on the sidewalks and the showcases still had remains of bright neon lights decoration from New Year’s Eve celebrations. Then the two men sat on a bench under a street light and one of them pulled out a week old Swiss newspaper. He read out loud in his friend’s ear; it was an item about a proposal made by the Romanian government to Britain and U.S.A. to allow 70,000 Jews from Transnistria to flee from[]

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יתומים יהודים שהסתתרו בזמן המלחמה בהולנד ושרדו. אמסטרדם, 1945 (בית התפוצות, המרכז לתיעוד חזותי ע"ש אוסטר)

Uncle Hannes: The Dutch Farmer Who Saved My Father from the Nazis

In 1963 the Israeli foreign ministry invited Johannes Bogaard, a Dutch farmer, to Israel on an official visit. He was awarded the “Righteous Among the Nations” title by Yad Vashem, the National Holocaust Memorial Authority, for saving some 300 Jewish children from certain death during the Holocaust, between 1941 and 1945. The ceremony included planting a tree in his honor. Bogaard was born in 1891 in a small village called Nieuw Vennep in Holland. He had hardly any formal education, just two years in elementary school, then since the age of 8 he worked at the family’s farm, and as[]

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Exhibition Opening: “Let There Be Laughter – Jewish Humor Around the World”

We were thrilled and honored to launch the new exhibition “Let There Be Laughter – Jewish Humor Around the World”, celebrating generations of Jewish humor, and marking 70 years of Israeli humor and satire. Many stage artists, comedians, actors, businesspersons and friends of the museum came to celebrate the opening with us, and were hosted and guided by Dan Tadmor, Beit Hatfutsot CEO and Dr. Orit Shaham-Gover, Beit Hatfutsot Chief Curator. A few of the distinguished guests who came to learn and laugh: Irina Nevzlin, Chair of the Board of Directors of the Museum of the Jewish People at Beit Hatfutsot[]

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Jews from Rynamow and the surrounding area in the town square before deportation, August 1942. Dr. Lazowski’s brave efforts ensured that the Jews of Rozwadów did not meet a similar fate (Courtesy of Dr. Zvi Rozen, Israel, Bernard H. and Miriam Oster Visual Documentation Center, Beit Hatfutsot—The Museum of the Jewish People)

The “Typhus Epidemic” that Saved Thousands

During the Holocaust a number of incredibly brave individuals risked their lives to save those of their friends, neighbors, or even the lives of strangers. One of the most remarkable stories of courage and creative thinking in the face of danger is that of Dr. Eugene Lazowski, who managed to create an entire typhus “epidemic” in order to keep the Nazis at bay. Dr. Lazowski (whose original name was Eugeniusz Sławomir Łazowski) was born in Częstochowa, Poland in 1913. In 1939, when the Germans invaded Poland, Dr. Lazowski was a young physician who had recently finished medical school and who[]

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A Festive Tribute to Beit Hatfutsot in Bologna, Italy

The Jewish Museum in Bologna, directed by Dr. Guido Ottolenghi, hosted a Gala evening in honor of The Museum of the Jewish People at Beit Hatfutsot’s 40th anniversary. Mayor of Bologna, Mr. Virginio Merola, the Ambassador of Israel in Italy, Mr. Ofer Sachs, President of the Jewish Communities in Italy (UCEI), Ms. Noemi Di Segni, and Ms. Claudia De Benedetti of  Beit Hatfutsot Board of Governors, participated in the Gala. Rare photos from the Beit Hatfutsot photo collections were displayed in honor of the Gala, depicting the young state of Israel, 7 decades ago. The Gala was held in “PALAZZO MALVEZZI”, in[]

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